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Astronomical Cosmological Extraterrestrial
Grand Design and Spiral Galaxies

There are billions of galaxies with billions of stars in our local universe with our Sun being a member of the Milky Way Galaxy.

There are two types of galaxies under study that have two very distinctive morphologies. They are the Grand Design Galaxies and the Flocculent Spiral Galaxies.

The most fundamental characteristic of the Grand Design Spiral Galaxy pictured on the left below is its two-armed, remarkably symmetrical, spiral pattern, which is reminiscent of the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol of flowing balance between both the masculine and feminine polarities.

In the Grand Design galaxy the spiral arms exhibit a significant level of evenness and connectiveness, especially in the galactic heartcore.

Grand Design Spiral Galaxy on Left and Flocculent Spiral Galaxy on Right
Image Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Courtesy of NASA, HST
Image Flocculent Spiral Galaxy Courtesy of Olivier Vallejo (Observatoire de Bordeaux), HST, ESA, NASA

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This brings to mind visions of soulmates in ecstatic embrace, possibly in the precursor stage of dreamweaving a spiraling galactic tree house for their fledgling brood of star clusters.

The morphological pattern of flocculent spiral galaxies, on the other hand, does not display the same underlying bimodal symmetry or smoothness of the Grand Design.

There is a giant bar in the center of this type of spiral galaxy which astronomers think might act as a funnel feeding gas to the inner ring where massive stars are being formed within the star clusters.

The center of the barred Flocculent Spiral Galaxy to the right above has a circle of neophyte star clusters 2,400 light years wide. A neighbor of our Milky Way galaxy, it is located 30 million light-years away.

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Astronomical Cosmological Extraterrestrial Copyright © 2002-2008 Maureen Grace Burns, Blessings Cornucopia. All Rights Reserved. Public Domain Image Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Courtesy of NASA, [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010203.html]; Image Flocculent Spiral Galaxy Courtesy of Olivier Vallejo, (Observatoire de Bordeaux), HST, ESA, NASA [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020403.html]. Accessed January 28, 2007

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Maureen Grace Burns, Blessings Cornucopia.